cecan webinar: the human, learning, systems approach to
TRANSCRIPT
CECAN Webinar:
The Human, Learning, Systems approach to managing in complexity
Tuesday 1st October 2019, 13:00 - 14:00 BST
Presenter: Dr Toby Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership and Management, Newcastle Business School
Welcome to our CECAN Webinar.
All participants are muted. Only the Presenter, Toby Lowe and CECAN Chair, Lisa Fletcher, can
speak. The webinar will start at 1pm BST.
Toby will speak for around 45 minutes and will answer questions at the end.
Please submit your questions at any point during the webinar via the question box in the Zoom
webinar control panel.
Today’s webinar will be recorded and made available on the CECAN website.
E Mail: [email protected] Web: www.cecan.ac.uk
www.facebook.com/CECANEXUS Twitter: @cecanexus
The Human Learning Systems approach to managing in complexity
Toby Lowe Newcastle Business School@tobyjlowe
#HumanLearningSystems
Overview
• What is complexity?
• What does complexity mean for your work?
Human Learning Systems
• Building a movement for an HLS approach
Complexity
Why is complexity relevant?
Our assertion:
Complexity is important because it describes the fundamental
processes by which the outcomes we care about are made.
If we fail to understand and embrace complexity, we will not be
able to create the outcomes we seek.
Complexity
We know we are in complex territory when:
• there are a variety of strengths and needs, and these look
different from different perspectives
• when outcomes are being produced by many factors
interacting together in an ever changing way
• when people are working in systems that are beyond the
control of any one of the actors in the system
Implications for Performance Management
OUTCOMES ARE NOT DELIVERED BY
ORGANISATIONS!
The outcomes we desire are emergent
properties
of complex systems
What does complexity require of us?
• The capacity to respond to variety – each person’s
strengths and needs are different
• The ability to adapt to change – the context in which
social interventions are undertaken constantly changes
• The ability to shape systems whose behaviour can’t be
reliably predicted, and which no one controls.
Key ideas
Funding, Commissioning and Managing in
complexity involves:
Being Human to one another: put on your VEST
Learning and adaptation: improvement requires
continuous learning
Systems: Nurture healthy systems to createpositive outcomes – be a System Steward
Human
To be Human, put on your VEST:
• Respond to Variety of human need and experience
• Use Empathy to understand the life of others
• View people from a Strengths-based perspective
• Trust people with decision-making
For Funders/Commissioners this means:
• Long term funding
• Funding without Performance Measures/KPIs –
“core/unrestricted funding”
• Fund those organisations you trust to build effective human
relationships with people – e.g. Plymouth – £80m, 10 year
Alliance contract
Human
= Social action is Bespoke by Default
Each human being is recognised as having their own strengths and
needs.
The job of social interventions is to:
• Hear and understand those strengths and needs through forming
relationships with people
• Respond appropriately to those strengths and needs
“liberating” workers from attempts to proceduralise what happens in
good human relationships, and instead focus on the capabilities and
contexts which help enable these relationships”
Learning
Young Foundation,
Stages of Social Innovation
Current view: Learning is a phase in social innovation
• Learn & experiment.
• Find “what works”
• Do more of that
Learning
In a complex environment, learning is a continuous
process
There is no such thing as “what works” – because “what
works” is always changing.
“What works” is a continuous process of learning and
adaption.
= funders and commissioners are “purchasing” the
capacity for organisations to learn and adapt.
Learning
“intended learning”(we know what ‘good’ looks like, we want you to know it too)
vs
“emergent learning” (what ‘good’ looks like keeps changing, we all need to keep up)
Emergent learning
Sahana Chattopadhyay
https://medium.com/activate-the-future/six-enablers-of-
emergent-learning-a1b9390279a6
Learning
Learning is enabled by:
• Funding for learning, not ‘results’
• Creating a learning culture:
• Removing competition
• Creating a positive error culture
• Formal and informal spaces for learning
• Using data to learn
Learning
Campbell’s Law:
‘The more any quantitative social indicator is used for
social decision making, the more subject it will be to
corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to
distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended
to monitor.’
Systems
Who looks after the health of a system?
Role of System Stewards
Systems
System StewardsWhat does a healthy system look like?
System Behaviours (via Lankelly Chase Foundation):
Perspective
• People view themselves as part of an interconnected whole
• People are viewed as resourceful and bringing strengths
• People share a vision
Power
• Power is shared, and equality of voice actively promoted
• Decision-making is devolved
• Accountability is mutual
Participation
• Open, trusting relationships enable effective dialogue
• Leadership is collaborative and promoted at every level
• Feedback and collective learning drive adaptation
Do you know what the relevant system(s) look like?
• Who are the relevant actors?
• Do the actors in the system recognise it as a system?
• What are the relationships between those actors?
How do you know what the state of play with your system is?
• Who is acting as a System Steward?
Panic! If we don’t have targets, how will the care system be accountable??
1) Targets don’t create accountability. Targets create gaming.
2) Four changes that HLS creates for accountability:
• Form of accountability: Accountability as dialogue
• Who participates in accountability dialogue
• What counts as evidence within accountability conversations
• What are we holding people accountable for? Accountability for the health of the system
Accountability in HLS
How to commission differently
Starting this process…
• What is your system’s de facto purpose?
• How will you ‘understand the system’?
Research into what HLS practice looks like
e.g. Tudor Trust – what does it mean to be an HLS funder?
What are the implications for VCS organisations?
IVAR
Experiments in HLS practice
Plymouth, Liverpool, Nottingham, Surrey, Gloucs, Cornerstone and more…
New funding approaches
Save the Children, Ashoka, Losing Control
Building a Movement – what’s happening?
•Use the language of Human Learning Systems
•Act as a champion. How can use your leverage with others?
•Explore funding/managing in an HLS way. Where would you start?
•Join with others: “Complexities” group
https://khub.net/group/complexity-friendly-system-oriented-commissioning-pilot-project
• Over 300 leaders from across the world (mainly UK)
• Resources from other places
• Forum to ask questions
What can you do?
Questions?